Play Games Before They're Downloaded

Remember that time when you had to download the whole game before playing it? Well, hang onto that memory as it's soon to become a thing of the past.

The British Awomo system uses digital downloading with one major difference, it downloads the core engine first and then starts to download the embellishments.

This means that for a game like Tomb Raider: Legend, instead of having to wait for all 7.2GB to download, you only need to pull down 652MB before Lara can be happily falling to her death, all while the later levels are still downloading in the background. And as a special bonus, you can now do it for free, for a limited time.

"This is a super-fast way of distributing games. For the first time we have created a system that really does for games what iTunes does for music," said Awomo boss Roger Walkden.

While it's obvious that certain games, like Team Fortress 2- which tends to be played on one map, would require a large download just to be operational, any of the more episodic games would only need the engine and the first level to begin playing. And even "one map" games have some of their time shaved off, unless you want to see the credits before you begin.